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Newer page: version 3 Last edited on Monday, January 17, 2005 10:38:51 am by JohnMcPherson Revert
Older page: version 2 Last edited on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 9:23:26 pm by DanielLawson Revert
@@ -1,11 +1,99 @@
-''(AddToMe: This page needs a lot of work .)''  
+Don 't rely on [WEP] to secure your network. Even with 128-bit or 256-bit keys it is trivial to crack
  
-!Tips for Securing Wireless Networks  
+!!! VPN/tunnel  
+Use a secure tunnel/[VPN] from wireless clients over the wireless network onto your real network.  
  
-* Don't rely on [WEP ] to secure your network . Even with 128-bit or 256-bit keys it is trivial to crack
+Put your WLAN hosts behind a firewall to protect your wired LAN from wireless intruders. Install [pptpd(8) ] on this firewall box and force wireless hosts to securely tunnel into your wired LAN . See the WirelessNetworkSecurityHowto
  
-* Put your WLAN hosts behind a firewall to protect your wired LAN from wireless intruders . Install [pptpd (8 )] on this firewall box and force wireless hosts to securely tunnel into your wired LAN . See the WirelessNetworkSecurityHowto
+  
+!!! WPA  
+To use the more secure WPA encryption rather than WEP, install the  
+__wpasupplicant__ package. This provides a program that encrypts data sent to your wireless card . Unfortunately it can be difficult to set up, partly because it uses a lot of acronyms that you need to understand, and partly because of incompatibilities between wireless equipment.  
+  
+WPA-PSK means use a __P__re-__S__hared __K__ey - ie both the AccessPoint  
+and the client know a shared secret.  
+  
+The main config file is /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.  
+  
+Here is an example config file.  
+<verbatim>  
+  
+# my wireless card (Atheron-based) and AP (Asus 6030) don't get on very  
+# well if this is set to 2  
+eapol_version=1  
+  
+# some default settings - see the example  
+# /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/examples/wpa_supplicant.conf.gz (debian) file  
+ap_scan=1  
+fast_reauth=1  
+  
+network={  
+ ssid="MY SSID"  
+  
+ # priority that wpasupplicant should try to connect to this  
+ # network block (out of all blocks listed in this config file )  
+ # 9 is highest, 0 is lowest  
+ priority=9  
+  
+ # my AP is set up to require WPA-PSK authentication  
+ # defaults to WPA-PSK WPA-EAP  
+ key_mgmt=WPA-PSK  
+  
+ # The password to use for WPA-PSK authentication.  
+ # this has to match the password on the AP, obviously  
+ psk="shared secret password"  
+  
+ # the order to try encryption algorithms in.  
+ #pairwise=AES TKIP  
+  
+ # broadcast/multicast group ciphers for WPA  
+ # default is CCMP(AES counter) TKIP WEP104 WEP  
+ # but my card/AP combination doesn't seem to work if it tries CCMP  
+ # so I'll override this setting  
+ group=TKIP  
+}  
+</verbatim>  
+  
+Now after your card is running (but not configured), you can set up your  
+connection/configuration to use WPA encryption by running  
+<verbatim>  
+wpa_supplicant -B -i''ath0'' -D''madwifi''  
+</verbatim>  
+replacing ''ath0'' with the correct interface (eth0, eth1, and so on) for  
+your machine, and ''madwifi'' with the correct driver for your wireless  
+card. -B means fork and go into the background. "__wpa_supplicant -h__" lists the following supported drivers:  
+* hostap  
+* prism54  
+* madwifi  
+* atmel  
+* wext  
+* ndiswrapper  
+* ipw2100  
+  
+If you want to try and debug why things aren't working, you can try the following from the command line:  
+ wpa_supplicant -dd -t -K -i''interface'' -D''device''  
+  
+!! Configuring your distro for WPA  
+! Debian Sarge/Sid (and Ubuntu?)  
+  
+<tt>apt-get install wpasupplicant</tt>  
+  
+Create /etc/wpa_supplicant .conf either from the example above, or based  
+on /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/examples/wpa_supplicant.conf.gz.  
+  
+Here is a snippet from my /etc/network/interfaces file.  
+(This __replaces__ the snippet for WEP you can find on the WirelessSetupNotes page.)  
+<verbatim>  
+iface ath0 inet dhcp  
+ pre-up wpa_supplicant -B -iath0 -Dmadwifi  
+ down skill wpa_supplicant  
+</verbatim>  
+Note that it probably isn't necessary to get rid of the wpa process after removing the interface, but it means that there aren't multiple processes if  
+you remove/insert the card several times.  
+  
+!Other distros  
+People who use other distros should put stuff here
  
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 Part of CategoryWireless